Comments on: Sports Travel A Missed Opportunity for Sailing Promoters.

By: Callum

Callum — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:41:23 +0000

This trend was spotted by Sawadee.com one of the largest online inbound booking agencies in Thailand. They also saw it as an opportunity to differentiate themselves from a host of other online sites by having real world presence. Consequently they signed up for a 3 years naming rights opportunity with the Samui Regatta.
www.samuiregatta.com

Additionally, by holding our event in the low season, many hotels on the island are very accommodating with sponsorship. We definitely wouldn't get that support during the high season!

This article also outlines a report I commissioned on Sports Tourism in SE Asia:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/10/08/busi...

It absolutely echoes the points you are making.

Callum

By: Callum

Callum — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:41:23 +0000

By: lynnfitzpatrick

lynnfitzpatrick — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:12:39 +0000

Miami is far from representative of the rest of the world, however my experience with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and individual hoteliers in trying to arrange seasonal discounts for visiting sailors was disappointing. The hotels want to maximize revenue during the peak season. If we could arrange regattas in the off season (hurricane season) they would be more than happy to speak with us. Hoteliers are interested in big events which put heads in beds, capture guests on their properties and sell banquet dinners and other services. The yacht clubs and the regatta villages do a good job at taking those revenue streams away from the hotels by capturing the sailors from early in the morning through well past sunset. On the other hand, in the interest of short-term profit, the hoteliers discount the fact that if a sailor has a good experience at a regatta, he/she will probably return for the same regatta year after year, encourage friends to go and sail other regattas at that venue.